


A Matter of Intentions

by Raven_Ehtar



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: M/M, Matchmaking, Shatnoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-24
Updated: 2013-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-26 18:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/653099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Star Trek was Gene's baby, and he would get some of the themes he wanted in the show past the censors even if it meant resorting to some sneaky measures. To his delight they worked like a charm... perhaps a little too well, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Matter of Intentions

_Star Trek_ was his baby. He’d worked long and hard on his brain child, its settings, themes, characters, the laws that governed its universe and all of its diverse peoples and cultures, and he clung hard to the finished result. More than anything, though, Gene had fought hard to give _Star Trek_ the chance it had now, the chance to break onto television, his baby delivered bright and shining into living rooms across the country. How many people would see his brain child, would fall in love with it as he had, and carry it around with them long after the credits rolled and the screen went dark? It was dizzying to think of, and Gene felt he’d had a lifelong dream granted at last. 

But dreams didn’t just pop into existence with the wave of a wand. He’d worked and fought, cajoled and manipulated, called in favors and pressed his luck to get as far as he had, but that was all just for a chance, a chance to have _Star Trek_ make it to screens. If he really wanted it to happen, then now was when the real work began. Now was when he had to shape his baby into something others would love more than anything else, a thing of quality that would stay on the air for years to come.

There were a million things to work on to make it all happen – possibly literally, he hadn’t bothered to count the number of things he had on his plate. Quite frankly, he was hesitant to tally up his mile long to-do list, in case the total broke his morale. It was enough to just whittle away at it and hope nothing was put off so long that it crippled the project. There were scripts to see to, of course, and the sets and props, the costumes, lighting, special effects, sound effects, the music and the editing. There was the makeup and the specialized makeup for the aliens, the exterior sets meant to be the surfaces of other planets, and all done on a budget that made shoestrings seem like a luxury. But it was still Gene’s baby, and he would do right by it. 

Then of course there were the actors that had to be sorted out. _Star Trek_ was a science fiction show, it was true, but Gene would have it so the main focus, what tied every episode together, would be the characters. And to do that, he needed the right actors to bring them to life. 

He already had a good start on the core crew. The starship of his show would serve as a home to several hundred crew, in theory, but for the most part they would only ever focus on about a dozen. And out of that dozen three in particular would be the permanent nucleus of the show: the Captain, the First Officer and the Chief Medical Officer.

His core crew all had backstories, had histories and motivations and, in some cases, hidden agendas. They all had particular ways in which they would be interacting with each other, some of it planned out by Gene and some, he hoped, springing up naturally as the actors grew comfortable in the characters’ skins, as they became them in ways the writers could not. The complexity of the characters and their relationships grew the closer one got to the center, and one of the million and four things that Gene had on his plate was in briefing all of the actors, in developing the characters for them so they _became_ the crew of the _Enterprise_. None were more crucial than the core three and their particular relationships to each other. 

To each of them were given their individual histories, as was given to every member of the core crew. Then they were each given their particular quirks of personality; the CMO was gruff and impatient but caring, the First Officer appeared cold and calculating at all times, but he was fiercely loyal and self-sacrificing, and the Captain was every inch the man in the uniform, but still possessed a sense of humor that bordered on the child-like.

There were a few points on how Gene wanted each of their relationships to appear and to evolve, the tenor of the on screen interactions. For the most part it was straightforward, and Gene didn’t load them down with too many details, but overviews, broad character arcs and suggestions. He knew that if he gave them too much then he would be effectively putting a muzzle on their performances. They would be so bound up by his guidelines that everything would come out stiff and unnatural. And he wanted everything to flow easily and for these spectacular places and situations to nevertheless feel as genuine as any living room. The key to that was for all of the characters to behave as though what they did every day was everyday to them. This was their life, and if it wasn’t humdrum, then at least it wasn’t astounding, either.

However, there was a little more to the characters, something specific that Gene wanted to portray. A nuance in one particular relationship that would take a lot of delicacy to even make it on screen. The network execs seemed hell bent on nixing practically everything in his baby that made it unique, trying to conform it to fit the standard mold, and this little detail wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving their censor happy hands. So, Gene wouldn’t tell them. He would sneak it by them with subtlety and not tell anyone on the set that didn’t need to know about it. 

Which was why he only told the characters who had to portray it. 

He called each of them in to his office separately, because these particular instructions were meant to be as secret from each other as they were from everyone else. Like a great prank, sometimes the best results came from the participants behaving at – seemingly – cross purposes. 

He called Shatner in first, the man who was to play his Captain and was the heart of the show. Or half of it, at any rate. He restated what he had already told him about his character and the other half of the relationship, that which would be open and obvious. How the two apparent opposites would begin as close friends, working closely together in dire situations, and how the working relationship would from loyalty and respect develop into affection and friendship, until finally a kind of brotherhood would spring up between the men of differing species but like minds. 

However, after the restatement, Gene went on to explain how he wanted the relationship to develop as it matured. He told Shatner how Kirk would come to depend heavily on his second in command, not only as his science officer, but as his friend. That the instinct to turn to Spock and always finding him there, ready and able to provide the moral and emotional support that a Captain needs in times of danger develops into an affection and reciprocating loyalty to Spock, that he will prioritize his second over other things that were, ‘officially,’ much more important. That the friendship would, with time, transcend its bounds and delve into something deeper. It wasn’t to be explicit, Gene explained, because the execs would never let it fly. How could they when they were already throwing fits about Spock’s ears and the male to female ratio of the crew? But Shatner was to keep all of this in mind as he played his part, and it was his job to let it show in small, subtle ways. It would be a part of the show, but only to those who were prepared to see it. 

Gene expected questioning, even objections from the leading man. To play even a subtle, barely there romance opposite another male? If it got out or was spotted by the wrong people, then what would his career turn into?

But no, Gene got quite a different reaction from the light-eyed actor. His whole face lit up, and a devilish grin spread over it, making him look just like an eight year old contemplating a particularly mischievous prank. _Would Leonard know about this development_ , he wanted to know. When Gene, his hands flat on the table and not a twitch in his expression to betray the half-truth, said, _No_ , Shatner laughed out loud, tossing his head back delightedly. 

_In that case I am most definitely in!_ he said. 

Smiling a wide smile at his first success, and with a mostly clear conscience, Gene called Nimoy into the office to complete the plan. 

Even though he hadn’t expected such a good response from Shatner, he still knew that Nimoy would be the harder one to convince. But he also knew what the key to getting him to accept would be: professional pride. 

After the same precursor that he had given to Shatner, he told him that there would be an extra layer of characterization for the complex Spock. He already had the basic concept with Spock’s two halves and the personal challenges that would present for him, then Gene added that while Spock was trying to balance out his human and Vulcan halves, he’s thrown off by his friendship with Kirk and McCoy. Particularly Kirk. The sentiment would fill the half-breed with shame, but in the end gratitude and affection would win out. Gratitude stemming from Kirk’s own whole hearted and unquestioning acceptance of the half-breed that had been discriminated against at every turn, and an affection that naturally came to be from the friendship, however much he tried to deny it. Eventually Spock would also learn to accept Kirk for all that he is and offers, and would no longer fight the affection he felt for his Captain. A sense of loyalty unlike any other he has ever experienced springs up for Kirk, and the affection eventually deepens to love. 

As expected, Nimoy proved to be more of a challenge than Shatner had, but still less so than he had originally thought. It wasn’t too hard to get him to agree. All he had to do was to point out what a unique, layered performance it would offer him, made especially so since no one would be privy to it. Not even his co-actor. 

Because that was important to have on the set as well, to bring out the most natural of performances. Neither of them could know of what the other would be up to. They each knew to keep the ‘secret instructions’ to themselves, and with luck, Gene would see the very natural effect he wanted. Because, realistically, Captain Kirk and Spock would both be unaware, wouldn’t they?

And it worked wonders. No more instruction was needed, nor did anything obvious need to be written into the scripts. Only bare suggestions and opportunities needed to be provided, and his two conspirators took care of the rest. Even the editors seemed to be in on the whole thing with their choices of cuts and what have you, though Gene knew for a fact that they hadn’t been told a thing. Just the right level was coming through, and none of the powers that be were any the wiser. Gene could pat himself on the back knowing that this one aspect of his baby had been pulled off well, and turn his attention to the other nine and a half billion things that he should be concentrating on. 

The impossible schedule and innumerable complications and small dramas continued on, and Gene was soon lost in all of it, and didn’t think about his little deceptive experiment again for a long time. It wasn’t until the on-set shenanigans began that Gene’s attention came back to his two central characters. 

The _Star Trek_ set was an unusually happy one. Despite the insane filming schedule, penny pinching budget and hundred other headaches, everyone seemed to get along incredibly well. It was a relief. If they had to deal with people not getting along on top of everything else, then _Star Trek_ probably wouldn’t have survived. But, with contradictive and stressful working conditions, there came on-set pranks.

Gene himself was guilty of many of these pranks. In between everything else he was meant to be doing, he still found the time, usually getting his secretary in on the joke to help him out. He became known for his hobby, and he was rather proud of it. But he was far from the only one indulging in those kinds of high spirits. There were plenty of others, some of them more fervently than the creator himself. Nothing enough to disrupt filming, as that wouldn’t be tolerated at all, but the one that really caught his attention was really a series of pranks that came to be known as ‘the Bicycle Incident.’ 

It wasn’t the incident itself that was so notable as it was who was involved. It was his leading man, having decided he was on friendly enough terms to get away with it, making it difficult – i.e., impossible – for Nimoy to use his bicycle to get to the commissary at lunchtime before everyone else. Through various inventive and hilarious means, none of which ever seemed to impress the victim in the least. 

It brought Gene’s attention back to the two actors and forced him to actually look at how they were behaving around each other. What he saw and how he – knowing a little more than anyone else did – interpreted it, surprised the hell out of him. 

The two actors got along well, better with each other than with anyone else at times, and Gene also noticed a certain tenor, a similarity between their friendship and that of the characters they played. Everyone was more comfortable with the process, their co-workers and their characters, but the ‘secret’ Gene had burdened each of the guys with was still a secret, and despite the familiarity, Shatner and Nimoy were acting almost shy around each other. Almost. If he used the word ‘shy’ then it would apply to Nimoy much more than Shatner, whose behavior was much more along the lines of a four year old trying to get the attention of someone he liked. 

Which seemed to be fairly accurate.

Gene took to watching the two more closely, both on and off the set, and his certainty that what he thought he saw only grew. He was even fairly certain that he could say where it had stemmed from. While filming they would, as their characters, give each other looks that could be interpreted a certain way. That was the point, after all. But neither of them knew that they were coming, and while that generated natural reactions, it also seemed to be making the realism a little too real. Gene saw looks very similar to the ones on set, happening after the cameras had stopped. 

He wondered what exactly he had started. 

Each of them, not knowing the looks were coming, but sending them out themselves, were interpreting the ones they were receiving as meant for _them_ , and not the characters they were playing. And it was spilling over into their off hours. 

He was too amused to feel very upset about the unintentional effects of his instructions, but he did wonder just how much of a matchmaker he’d played for the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only ~~assuming~~ pretending that Gene meant for all the subtext to come through, but behind the scenes shenanigans, including the 'Bicycle Incident' actually happened. Bill was a terror, apparently. XD


End file.
